a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Game 13 vs. SA: Jazz contain Matt Bonner, but still lose

First of all, thoughts and prayers are with Coach and the Sloan family for their loss.

Booner sums it up pretty well:

This might’ve been billed “The Battle of the Closing Window of Opportunity.” I became a Jazz fan in 1992, which was John and Karl’s 8th and 7th years, respectively. At that point, national columnists (which was all I had access to back then) were already talking about the Jazz’s closing window. The Spurs are in that same situation now. They’ve quietly gotten younger, but everyone still thinks they’re old, crusty, and on their deathbed.

And they beat us, as usual (last season was some kind of weird anomaly).

It took us more than 4 minutes to score our first points, and 5.5 minutes to score our second bucket. Fortunately for us (at that point), the Spurs didn’t exactly get off to a smoking start either, which I attribute to Coach Pop erroneously not starting Matt Bonner against us. Seven minutes in, the Spurs had a double-digit lead.

I’m done with recapping. I’m going to rant now.

One of Jazz fans’ top concerns over the past few years has been our back up point guard situation and the “letdown” whenever Deron goes out of the game, even if it’s only for 8-10 minutes every night. Well, right now, Ronnie P and Earl Watson are bringing the up-tempo, energy, and hustle that we need at to see at the start of games, while Deron in first quarter action is more meh than not. The starters had 6 turnovers in the first quarter; Ronnie P had 8 deflections in the 2nd. Something wrong with this picture?

Bottom line is, Deron needs to do a better job do the opposite of what he did tonight; the bigs need to start boxing the f*** out or go down trying; and the entire team needs to stop playing like they’re allergic to the paint and indulging themselves with jump shots.

Unintentional Dirty Quote Machines of the Night:** Boler: McDyess makes contact with ball, two shots coming for Millsap. (This one might be the best unintentional dirty quote ever.)** Thurl: Deron has the mouse in the house, which is having a smaller Tony Parker on his back, and he’s taking advantage of it.